The moment that helped hook millions of viewers into Fisher Stevens ’ four-part David Beckham documentary series on Netflix wasn’t the glamour or the glitz. It wasn’t even the rare footage from the Spice Girls’ world tour or the opening shots of Beckham beekeeping his own honey in a jaw-dropping bespoke suit with the initials “DB” embroidered on the side. What really hooked “Beckham” audiences was a completely candid moment that shocked both the director and his interview subject, Victoria Beckham, as her husband barged in mid-recording to fact-check his wife.
The off-camera (gentle) prodding showcased something magazine photo shoots, arena stages and fashion catwalks could never reveal: a real couple. That pure, unfiltered exchange between a husband and wife lifted the veil behind the Beckhams, instantly going viral. Despite the grand homes and hobbies, it was the banter that brought the Beckhams into everyone’s living room.
It added a layer of relatability and humor that resonates with audiences and underscores the documentary series’ success and five Emmy nominations. By humanizing this larger-than-life couple, Stevens was able to tell the complete story of David’s rise to fame and shed a little light on who this man truly is behind the tattoos and the jerseys. Stevens discussed with Variety all the work that went into capturing that impromptu moment and how this narrative ultimately became a love story for Variety’s “Making A Scene,” presented by HBO.
Building a rapport with Victoria took some time for Stevens. “She was quite nervous [during] the first interview,” he admits. “Getting her to sit down and talk about her husband .
.. she wasn’t so excited to tell me all this.
” Scheduling was also a challenge, coupled by the need for hair and makeup, something no other subject in the documentary required. “But she’s Victoria, of course, fine,” says Stevens. To make the fashion designer more comfortable, Stevens shot on a day when David would be away from their home in Holland Park, London.
The conversation began smoothly, with Victoria discussing her early upbringing. “I was thinking, ‘God, she’s really sweet and she’s really open,’” Stevens recalls. “And she starts to talk and telling me, ‘We came from kind of modest .
..’ Then David opens the door and he goes, ‘Be honest.
Be honest.’ And I’m like, ‘What?’” Shocked, Stevens immediately texted his producing partner, who was listening in from the next room, “What the fuck is David doing here?” “[Victoria] was very embarrassed and nervous because clearly, he’s been watching, and I was mortified myself,” explains Stevens. After making sure David had left, Stevens resumed the interview, not starting until he heard the door close and saw David’s “beautiful car” bailout.
So why did David, despite the careful planning, sneak into his wife’s interview? “I think he was nervous for her,” Stevens says. His interruption wasn’t meant to derail the interview but to encourage Victoria to be her true self. Although David often downplayed his intelligence to Stevens in a self-deprecating manner, the director noted how perceptive and intuitive his subject was.
After several one-on-one interviews, David realized this documentary was something deeper and different. “He understood that this couldn’t be a puff piece. It couldn’t be brand Beckham bullshit.
And that was my pitch.” Still, Stevens wasn’t thrilled with the disruption, especially after all the effort to get David out of the house. “I only had an hour and a half with Victoria, so I needed him to get out now,” Stevens recalls.
In the end, David’s unexpected presence turned out to be a pivotal moment. “It was affecting him, and I think he wanted his wife to not do the typical thing, and that just freed her because then the next interview, that’s when she was like, ‘Ready, go.’ This interview changed everything.
So it was kind of great he was there in a way, and it was a great moment for the movie, clearly. But it pissed me off.” Stevens was particularly appreciative of his camera operator, Damien Drake, whose quick instincts captured the moment a cheeky David peeked out from behind the door.
Drake’s ability to swiftly pivot the camera was made possible by his quick thinking and Stevens’ preference for handheld shots over tripods. “All my interviews are handheld, which is really tough on a cameraman because we shoot with these very heavy cameras,” Stevens explains. This approach allowed them to capture the authenticity that became a hallmark of the documentary.
These little love stories threaded through “Beckham” weren’t the initial story Stevens was looking to uncover. His vision for the docuse- ries was originally framed around working-class England and football and the parallels. Stevens found childhood footballers who played with Beckham and interviewed them all, but ultimately, those conversations were cut to refocus on a different element: love.
“I realized anytime I went away from David, the story was bullshit,” says Stevens. “Then David started to really open up to me much more and the interviews started getting much more intricate and deeper. Then I was like, ‘Oh fuck, I don’t need any of that stuff.
I just need him and his wife.’ “It’s a love story,” Stevens continues. “This is a love story about him and his wife, him and his dad, him and his ex-manager, Alex Ferguson.
” Focusing the lens on these narratives allowed the audience to experience the highs and lows of the iconic elements of David’s life. Knowing the man almost made witnessing the infamous England versus Argentina red card during the 1998 World Cup even more brutal, especially after Fisher filmed his reaction to watching the footage in real-time. The effect of projecting the archival football footage across David’s face (and various other players Stevens interviewed) took 40 or 50 tries just to master for a few shots with the graphic designer Anthony Rhodes.
Stevens also credits editor Michael Harte with helping find the language of “Beckham.” Having just wrapped “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” Harte was not fully ready to take on another project, but Stevens was insistent.
“I started editing with other editors, great editors, but we were struggling a bit to find the essence of the film,” says Stevens. “I just had a feeling about this guy, and I hounded. I stalked Michael Harte because I just knew, no matter where we were, I wanted him to come in.
” Harte and the crew knew the Victoria and David exchange was dynamite, but finding exactly where to land this reveal was integral to the story and an important puzzle to solve. Immediately following its streaming debut, “Beckham” spent six weeks at the top of Netflix Top 10 English-language TV chart. Stevens credits this series’ success to his team, from the composer to the camera operator, and also to “David and Victoria trusting me, for sure,” he says.
“They really trusted me.”.
